Out among a herd of does, Roger Schmitt spotted a deer with one of the prettiest set of antlers he’d ever seen.

“I’ve been hunting for six or seven years,” Schmitt said, “and I’ve taken several small bucks, but never one with that nice of a rack before.”

So Schmitt pulled the trigger and momentarily traipsed over to his trophy buck.

“When I rolled it over, I couldn’t believe it,” Schmitt said.

Schmitt’s trophy buck was a doe.

“I’d read about them before, but that’s the first time I’d ever seen one,” he said. “Even the game warden who verified it said he’d never seen one.”

Antlered does are uncommon, but not exceedingly rare. Scientists estimate antlers in female white-tailed deer can run anywhere from 1 in 900 to 1 in 4,500. Researchers estimate one in every 1,000 to 6,000 white-tailed females produces antlers.

Antlered does’ racks are the result of a stimulated pituitary gland.

Many of the racks remain in velvet and never harden, since the females lack the testosterone level necessary to stem the flow of blood.

Roger Schmitt, who lives near Worden, harvested this unusual antlered doe in an alfalfa field not far from where he lives.

A few females do have enough of the male hormone for this to happen, however, which appears to be the case with Schmitt’s anomaly.

Schmitt, who raises beef cattle in the Worden area of Douglas County, harvested the unusual animal in an alfalfa field about a mile and a half from where he lives.

“My wife and I saw several deer in that field and I told her that might be a good place to set up a blind,” he said.

So Schmitt purchased a seven-foot camouflaged blind and set it up. On Dec. 3 — two days after the opening of firearms deer season — he entered the blind at about 4:45 p.m. An hour and a half later, he shot the antlered doe.

Schmitt estimates the deer weighed a little more than 200 pounds and was three or four years old. The animal’s nine-point rack would rate about 135 points, he said, on the Boone and Crockett scale — not enough for inclusion in the record book, but good enough.

“That rack is very nice,” he said. “I’d have been proud even if it had been a buck.”